Photoshop Touch puts graphic design in the palm of your hand

Do you get random bursts of creativity at the most inopportune of times? Don't always have a computer nearby? Feel like your desktop computer's screen is maybe a little too big? Adobe's latest mobile app release can help you get creative on the go. And if you hate traffic, you'll really like this app update from Waze. This week, we'll help with your traffic conundrums, ignite your creative fire, and do what we always do on Fridays—help you discover new apps.

If you’ve got a stylus and a knack for graphic design, Adobe’s Photoshop Touch application for Android is incredibly feature-filled. Whether you need to spruce up a photo for posting to Instagram, or create some full-fledged graphic art on the train ride home from work, Photoshop Touch is very capable.

The app launches just like Photoshop on your desktop: you can choose whether to grab either a locally stored photo or one from the Creative Cloud, or you can just start on a blank canvas. Photoshop Touch includes several filters and effects, too, like Directional Blur and Drop Shadow. Seasoned Photoshop veterans might get a better handle on creating art on-the-go with this app, but novices can use it to tweak and correct their photos with the Adjustments options or remove something from a photo with the Clone Stamp tool.

Admittedly, it’s a bit difficult to get much done on the app without a stylus on hand. There’s also a tablet version for $9.99 if you’d rather prefer using this on a bigger screen.

Waze is a community-based, socially-aggregated maps app that shows live traffic results based on what others input. This includes traffic jams, speed traps, accidents, a weird road hazard that the news may not have picked up, and where to buy the cheapest gas. You can also see where your Facebook friends are driving to or how far away from your house they are, and Waze will automatically store your most frequent destinations, as well as do automatic re-routing based on road changes. Waze can also calculate different routes to a destination and will show the various accidents or unfortunately setbacks that may occur along the way. You can also contribute to the Waze data to help others avoid epic traffic jams, but your request only becomes influential the more you contribute.

The Google Play Store’s discovery engine doesn’t exactly make it easy to find new and relevant applications. Frappe helps with this issue a bit. This context-aware app discovery tool provides personalized app searches based on what you have downloaded and what you normally use. Users can customize what they’re looking for, look for applications by category, and recommendations change as more apps are installed. Frappe is also good for finding applications that might be free for a limited time.

Bonus:

Looks like the Weather Channel app wasn't the only weather app to recently undergo a makeover. Updated just a few days ago, the new AccuWeather update features push notifications for severe weather alerts, customizable lifestyle forecasts, and social media sharing. It also features weather alerts in the notifications pull-down shade, though if you're a Google Now user you might not the find the need for such a function.

Florence Ion / Florence was a former Reviews Editor at Ars, with a focus on Android, gadgets, and essential gear. She received a degree in journalism from San Francisco State University and lives in the Bay Area.